In the Ma‘abarah

Ruth Schloss

1953

Abstract painting of camp with many tents and a luminous rectangular area in middle featuring three figures including a mother and child and a clothesline between the tents.
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Ruth Schloss’s artworks were infused with her commitment to social justice and egalitarianism. This painting of a ma‘abarah (refugee absorption camp), made at a time when the new State of Israel was struggling to take in hundreds of thousands of arriving immigrants, emphasizes the crowded conditions. In the center of a jumble of tents, painted in muddy hues, is a brightly colored patch illuminating women, children, and a clothesline, suggesting hope in the midst of hardship.

Credits

Collection of Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod, Israel.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 9.

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Related Guide

Visual and Material Culture in the Mid-Twentieth Century

1939–1973

Jewish visual art flourished and diversified in the postwar period, reflecting the social and political transformations taking place in the world.

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